From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
noise
n 1: sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant
sound); "he enjoyed the street noises"; "they heard
indistinct noises of people talking"; "during the
firework display that ended the gala the noise reached
98 decibels"
2: the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality;
sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience; "modern
music is just noise to me" [syn: dissonance, racket]
3: electrical or acoustic activity that can disturb
communication [syn: interference, disturbance]
4: a loud outcry of protest or complaint; "the announcement of
the election recount caused a lot of noise"; "whatever it
was he didn't like it and he was going to let them know by
making as loud a noise as he could"
5: incomprehensibility resulting from irrelevant information or
meaningless facts or remarks; "all the noise in his speech
concealed the fact that he didn't have anything to say"
6: the quality of lacking any predictable order or plan [syn:
randomness, haphazardness, stochasticity]
v : emit a noise [syn: make noise, resound]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Noise \Noise\, v. i.
To sound; to make a noise. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Noise \Noise\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Noised; p pr. & vb. n.
Noising.]
1. To spread by rumor or report.
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All these sayings were noised abroad. --Luke i. 65.
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2. To disturb with noise. [Obs.] --Dryden.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Noise \Noise\, n. [F. noise noisy strife, quarrel, brawl, fr. L.
nausea seasickness, sickness, disgust. See Nausea.]
1. Sound of any kind.
[1913 Webster]
The heavens turn about in a most rapid motion
without noise
to us perceived. --Bacon.
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Note: Noise is either a sound of too short a duration to be
determined, like the report of a cannon; or else it is
a confused mixture of many discordant sounds, like the
rolling of thunder or the noise of the waves.
Nevertheless, the difference between sound and noise is
by no means precise. --Ganot.
[1913 Webster]
2. Especially, loud, confused, or senseless sound; clamor;
din.
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3. Loud or continuous talk; general talk or discussion;
rumor; report. "The noise goes." --Shak.
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What noise have we had about transplantation of
diseases and transfusion of blood! --T. Baker.
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Socrates lived in Athens during the great plague
which has made so much noise in all ages.
--Spectator.
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4. Music, in general; a concert; also, a company of
musicians; a band. [Obs.] --Milton.
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The king has his noise of gypsies. --B. Jonson.
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Syn: Cry; outcry; clamor; din; clatter; uproar.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
background \back"ground`\, n. [Back, a. + ground.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Ground in the rear or behind, or in the distance, as
opposed to the foreground, or the ground in front.
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2. (Paint.) The space which is behind and subordinate to a
portrait or group of figures.
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Note: The distance in a picture is usually divided into
foreground, middle distance, and background.
--Fairholt.
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3. Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a
background of red hangings.
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4. A place in obscurity or retirement, or out of sight.
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I fancy there was a background of grinding and
waiting before Miss Torry could produce this highly
finished . . . performance. --Mrs.
Alexander.
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A husband somewhere in the background. --Thackeray.
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5. The set of conditions within which an action takes place,
including the social and physical conditions as well as
the psychological states of the participants; as, within
the background of the massive budget deficits of the
1980's, new spending programs had little chance of passage
by the congress.
[PJC]
6. The set of conditions that precede and affect an action,
such as the social and historical precedents for the
event, as well as the general background[5]; as, against
the background of their expulsion by the Serbs, the desire
of Kosovars for vengeance is understandable though
regrettable.
[PJC]
7. (Science) The signals that may be detected by a
measurement which are not due to the phenomenon being
studied, and tend to make the measurement uncertain to a
greater or lesser degree. Specifically: (Physics)
Electronic noise present in a system using electronic
measuring instrument or in a telecommunications system,
which may hide and which must be differentiated from the
desired signal; also called background noise or noise.
[PJC]
8. (Journalism) An agreement between a journalist and an
interviewee that the name of the interviewee will not be
quoted in any publication, although the substance of the
remarks may be reported; -- often used in the phrase "on
background". Compare deep background.
[PJC]
To place in the background, to make of little consequence.
To keep in the background, to remain unobtrusive,
inconspicuous or out of sight; -- of people.
deep background, (Journalism) the status of an interview
which must not be quoted in a publication, even without
attribution. Compare background[8].
[1913 Webster +PJC]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
noise
<communications> Any part of a signal that is not the true or
original signal but is introduced by the communication
mechanism.
A common example would be an electrical signal travelling down
a wire to which noise is added by inductive and capacitive
coupling with other nearby signals (this kind of noise is
known as "crosstalk").
A less obvious form of noise is quantisation noise, such as
the error between the true colour of a point in a scene in the
real world and its representation as a pixel in a digital
image.
(2003-07-05)